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Background: for those of you who don't know, I make fursuit/mascot costumes. Probably 95% of my customers are nice, sane, decent people. The other 5% are... interesting, to say the least.
Anyhow, some of you may remember the whole saga with the guy who ended up wrecking his life and bailing out on his costume, leaving it half paid for, and leaving me stuck with it. (I'm too lazy to look up my past posts on it.)
When I gave him an ultimatum and some options, he picked the option where I'd send him a wearable mini-costume consisting of the hands, feet, and tail from the original full suit, and we'd call it even. (It's sort of a "screw us both equally" option, since it left him having paid about twice the worth of what he got, but still left me out half the price of the work I actually did. I figured I'd be okay though, as I could sell the remaining pieces, may be with new hands and feet to fit the new buyer, and make back the difference. You'll see how that's working out below...)
So he gave me his address, and I boxed up and shipped his stuff. I even made him a little set of ears (valued about $20) since I felt a little bad for how much money he was losing on this deal, even if I was losing too.
Yesterday he IMd me. He has some weird aversion to e-mails, he has to be prodded into reading or sending them. He started in with the idle chit-chat, and asked how I was. I said "Okay" and he responded with that "Just okay? Is something wrong?" thing, which honestly I hate. And in this case I had to bite my tongue SO HARD on "Well, because of you I'm about $700 short right now, so that is making my life slightly more difficult." Twit. I just said it was life as usual, so yeah, just okay.
So he starts rambling on about school, and about his art. And since I have better things to do than hang breathlessly on his every word, I was taking ten or fifteen minutes to respond sometimes. He finally asked if I was busy, and I said yes, in fact I was.
Which prompted him to finally get to the POINT and tell me that he'd IMd me to ask about his paws, and had I mailed them yet! ARGH.
I AM NOT YOUR AUNT MATILDA, YOU DO NOT NEED TO MAKE POLITE, SOCIAL CHIT-CHAT WITH ME BEFORE BRINGING UP YOUR REAL QUESTION. For frick's sake, I am a businessperson, you are a customer, just tell me what you want already!
But it gets stupider than that. I had, in fact, mailed them. I'd mailed them something like a month ago! I told him this, and he asked what address I'd sent them to. I did a quick e-mail search (bless gmail) and copy-pasted the address he'd given me.
"Oh no" says he. Yeah. He'd left his apartment number off of it. Brilliant. Then he tells me that it's probably being held "at the post office" which is certainly possible, and then says that I should go to my post office and check for it.
No, you nimrod. If it has come back to my address it will have come back to ME, because unlike you I know my apartment number, and I put it on the return address. It will not be at my post office. You might check yours, but I'm not going to check mine.
Gah. Idiot.
Anyhow, I asked him to please e-mail me his full, correct address, so if I do get it back again I can send it out to the right place. (I gave him my e-mail and everything.) And he just says the apartment number in the chat.
I explained that I needed it e-mailed, since I am not using my home computer, and will not have logs of this chat, so could he please e-mail me the full address?
He said yes, but as of today he still hasn't. And do I give a damn? No I do not! A damn is not given. At this point I feel it's entirely on his head, and if he wants the damn costume he can damn well take responsibility for getting me his address!
So that's where that half of the saga stands. But that's just half of it. The other half is my adventures in trying to sell this damn suit!
So far I've had five or six people show interest in buying it. Every last one of them has been a blithering idiot! Firstly, there were the THREE different people who've tried "sniping" the auctions I ran for it by bidding the minimum starting bid at the last second before the auctions' end... on an auction with a reserve price.
Needless to say, all three auctions ended without a winning bid. (I used a furry-specific free auction site, though ebay is my next move.)
Then there was the guy who messaged me, asking if I could end the auction early, and offering me not the buy it now price, but the starting bid. The one that didn't meet the reserve price.
Oh, and one of the sniping geniuses messaged me after the auction was over to ask if I'd sell it to him, and when I quoted him a price for a flat sale, he proceeded to whine to me about how I ran the auction, complain about the reserve price, whinge about how he'd missed some other auction because he'd been watching mine so intently, and when I finally said "Look, do you want it or not?" said no he didn't, that was too expensive.
But the crowning jewel here is, well... I'll copy-paste this for you.
Her - "I REALLY love this suit and want it REALLY bad. How much is it to buy this?"
Me - "I currently have it up for auction here: (url redacted)
Although there is a reserve price. There aren't any bids so far. You
can bid there if you like, or I can end the auction and we can make
arrangements."
Her - "Well, What I was wondering is that I have a con to go to but no suit and I REALLY want this suit!, I am 13 but heres what I was thinking.
I was wondering if I could send you the money to ship it, Then send you the money as I go along. I have my birthday party on april 2nd and I am asking for money there are over 30 people coming, so I can send you that AS SOON AS I GET IT. I promise! And if I don't have enough I will sell things and work my butt off to get the money. Please think about it! It would mean alot to me!! You can even sue if I don't send the money. I have 75 dollars on credit card right now. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go through with this. I will love you forever!"
Yeah. She just asked me to send it UNPAID FOR, so she could then pay me with her hypothetical birthday money. I can eve sue her if I like. (I'm getting a lot of use out of the eyeroll icon on this thing.)
Me - "I don't think that will work very well. I want to sell this outright,
and get the full price up front. (If you want a complete suit with
hands and feet the full price is $700) And I absolutely will not ship
it until it's completely paid for."
Her - Resounding silence.
I still have the stupid thing. I'll probably have it for quite a while before I find a sane buyer, because at this point, given the behavior of everybody involved, I think this costume is an idiot magnet. Only one single person who's expressed any interest in buying it has been a non-idiot, and his "interest" was "Well, I wish I had some money, I'd like to get this, but I can't."
I'd ask if anybody out there wants a green husky suit, but I'd just attract more idiots, no doubt.
Anyhow, some of you may remember the whole saga with the guy who ended up wrecking his life and bailing out on his costume, leaving it half paid for, and leaving me stuck with it. (I'm too lazy to look up my past posts on it.)
When I gave him an ultimatum and some options, he picked the option where I'd send him a wearable mini-costume consisting of the hands, feet, and tail from the original full suit, and we'd call it even. (It's sort of a "screw us both equally" option, since it left him having paid about twice the worth of what he got, but still left me out half the price of the work I actually did. I figured I'd be okay though, as I could sell the remaining pieces, may be with new hands and feet to fit the new buyer, and make back the difference. You'll see how that's working out below...)
So he gave me his address, and I boxed up and shipped his stuff. I even made him a little set of ears (valued about $20) since I felt a little bad for how much money he was losing on this deal, even if I was losing too.
Yesterday he IMd me. He has some weird aversion to e-mails, he has to be prodded into reading or sending them. He started in with the idle chit-chat, and asked how I was. I said "Okay" and he responded with that "Just okay? Is something wrong?" thing, which honestly I hate. And in this case I had to bite my tongue SO HARD on "Well, because of you I'm about $700 short right now, so that is making my life slightly more difficult." Twit. I just said it was life as usual, so yeah, just okay.
So he starts rambling on about school, and about his art. And since I have better things to do than hang breathlessly on his every word, I was taking ten or fifteen minutes to respond sometimes. He finally asked if I was busy, and I said yes, in fact I was.
Which prompted him to finally get to the POINT and tell me that he'd IMd me to ask about his paws, and had I mailed them yet! ARGH.
I AM NOT YOUR AUNT MATILDA, YOU DO NOT NEED TO MAKE POLITE, SOCIAL CHIT-CHAT WITH ME BEFORE BRINGING UP YOUR REAL QUESTION. For frick's sake, I am a businessperson, you are a customer, just tell me what you want already!
But it gets stupider than that. I had, in fact, mailed them. I'd mailed them something like a month ago! I told him this, and he asked what address I'd sent them to. I did a quick e-mail search (bless gmail) and copy-pasted the address he'd given me.
"Oh no" says he. Yeah. He'd left his apartment number off of it. Brilliant. Then he tells me that it's probably being held "at the post office" which is certainly possible, and then says that I should go to my post office and check for it.
No, you nimrod. If it has come back to my address it will have come back to ME, because unlike you I know my apartment number, and I put it on the return address. It will not be at my post office. You might check yours, but I'm not going to check mine.
Gah. Idiot.
Anyhow, I asked him to please e-mail me his full, correct address, so if I do get it back again I can send it out to the right place. (I gave him my e-mail and everything.) And he just says the apartment number in the chat.
I explained that I needed it e-mailed, since I am not using my home computer, and will not have logs of this chat, so could he please e-mail me the full address?He said yes, but as of today he still hasn't. And do I give a damn? No I do not! A damn is not given. At this point I feel it's entirely on his head, and if he wants the damn costume he can damn well take responsibility for getting me his address!
So that's where that half of the saga stands. But that's just half of it. The other half is my adventures in trying to sell this damn suit!
So far I've had five or six people show interest in buying it. Every last one of them has been a blithering idiot! Firstly, there were the THREE different people who've tried "sniping" the auctions I ran for it by bidding the minimum starting bid at the last second before the auctions' end... on an auction with a reserve price.
Needless to say, all three auctions ended without a winning bid. (I used a furry-specific free auction site, though ebay is my next move.)
Then there was the guy who messaged me, asking if I could end the auction early, and offering me not the buy it now price, but the starting bid.
The one that didn't meet the reserve price.Oh, and one of the sniping geniuses messaged me after the auction was over to ask if I'd sell it to him, and when I quoted him a price for a flat sale, he proceeded to whine to me about how I ran the auction, complain about the reserve price, whinge about how he'd missed some other auction because he'd been watching mine so intently, and when I finally said "Look, do you want it or not?" said no he didn't, that was too expensive.
But the crowning jewel here is, well... I'll copy-paste this for you.
Her - "I REALLY love this suit and want it REALLY bad. How much is it to buy this?"
Me - "I currently have it up for auction here: (url redacted)
Although there is a reserve price. There aren't any bids so far. You
can bid there if you like, or I can end the auction and we can make
arrangements."
Her - "Well, What I was wondering is that I have a con to go to but no suit and I REALLY want this suit!, I am 13 but heres what I was thinking.
I was wondering if I could send you the money to ship it, Then send you the money as I go along. I have my birthday party on april 2nd and I am asking for money there are over 30 people coming, so I can send you that AS SOON AS I GET IT. I promise! And if I don't have enough I will sell things and work my butt off to get the money. Please think about it! It would mean alot to me!! You can even sue if I don't send the money. I have 75 dollars on credit card right now. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go through with this. I will love you forever!"
Yeah. She just asked me to send it UNPAID FOR, so she could then pay me with her hypothetical birthday money. I can eve sue her if I like.
(I'm getting a lot of use out of the eyeroll icon on this thing.)Me - "I don't think that will work very well. I want to sell this outright,
and get the full price up front. (If you want a complete suit with
hands and feet the full price is $700) And I absolutely will not ship
it until it's completely paid for."
Her - Resounding silence.
I still have the stupid thing. I'll probably have it for quite a while before I find a sane buyer, because at this point, given the behavior of everybody involved, I think this costume is an idiot magnet. Only one single person who's expressed any interest in buying it has been a non-idiot, and his "interest" was "Well, I wish I had some money, I'd like to get this, but I can't."
I'd ask if anybody out there wants a green husky suit, but I'd just attract more idiots, no doubt.
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